playing to loops and drumless recordings vs jamming

dazzlez

Senior Member
Can't find much people to jam with at the moment.

Can you learn the skill of playing well with others simply by playing a lot to loops and drumless recordings?
 
Playing with others is where the rubber meets the road, mate. You can still learn and develop with play alongs et al. But if you really want to develop as a musician, then learn to drive a band. That's where you learn to interact, adapt and feed off one another. That just can't be done with a pre-recorded track.

One of the steepest, yet most rewarding learning curves you'll ever be on. Nothing, but nothing, beats laying it down with other musicians. I highly encourage all musicians to get out and do it as soon as they possibly can.
 
Yeah, i would say the answer to your question is no. You Cannot learn the skill of playing well with others simply by playing a lot to loops and drumless recordings?

You will learn the skill of playing well and with good time. but jamming with others in the right setting is a true conversation. Micro adjustments you all make as you play together, listening to each other as the jam evolves. There really too is nothing better than gaining that sixth sense when you know your bandmates so well, that your jams become almost fully written songs on the fly.
 
I support whats been said in this thread, playing with others comes above everything.

However, definitely take advantage of the resources available to you while you have nobody to play with. What I found very useful is finding drumless tracks in odd-times and playing to those. Really helped me in "feeling" odd-times and what soloing techniques work in which don't. I guess solo-ing in odd time isn't something you do everyday in a band setting, but it definitely helped me with my overall phrasing and sense of time.
 
I think playing to records is just as important as playing to a metronome or jamming or being in the school band. You should do all of that and more..
 
Playing with records is easy, but still good practice. Your best bet though is to download some drumless music - you can find tons of it for free all over the net. Check Youtube, and rip them using youtube-mp3converter (just google it). You can usually find drumless tracks of your favorite songs.

The difference is on records you hear the drums, so you feel the pulse. But when drums are removed, you have to feel the pulse by your own means, and because most all recordings in studio these days are done with a metronome, drumless tracks are unforgiving, so the music won't give you any slack. It's a very good time keeping exercise. I think 30 minutes a day of practice - 15 minutes with a metronome, 15 minutes playing with drumless tracks, and in just a few weeks, you'd be a grooving champ.
 
I think playing to records is just as important as playing to a metronome or jamming or being in the school band. You should do all of that and more..

Agreed. It's fun to play with a loop, because you can 'dance' around it and have fun, while learning to stay in time. And drumless tracks are also fun, although it's not a substitute for playing with musicians.

There's an interaction and direction and evolution that happens only when players can key off of each other in person.

I always prefer jamming and gigging to just 'practicing' at home (except where I have a specific thing to work on.)

Bermuda
 
Thanx for the replies. Never thought about drumless tracks being such a big difference but it makes sense. Definitely gonna switch to that at least.
Not much I can do about playing with others right now, probably gonna take a few months before I find some people. It's a tiny music scene where I am and too many drummers.
 
Well one is a medium that you can press stop, play/rewind/fast forward, etc and the other is a group of people entraining their minds.

Two different horses altogether. You should be proficient in both.
 
when I was learningk, my teacher man gave me drumless songs to play to (not actual songs, just ones he had developed on some program or other.) but the first time I played with other guys, I was not used to leading the timing so I kept following the band and went 'inside out' regularly.
playing with songs does help to discover the correct timing, but a band is the best..
 
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